Votic, or Votian (''vaďďa tšeeli'', ''maatšeeli''
)
">vɑːdʔda ˈtʃɨlɨ, mɑːt.ʃɨlɨ is the language spoken by the
Votes of
Ingria
Ingria is a historical region in what is now northwestern European Russia. It lies along the southeastern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordered by Lake Ladoga on the Karelian Isthmus in the north and by the River Narva on the border with Esto ...
, belonging to the
Finnic branch of the
Uralic languages
The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...
. Votic is spoken only in
Krakolye and Luzhitsy, two villages in
Kingiseppsky District
Kingiseppsky District (russian: Кингисе́ппский райо́н, fi, Kingiseppin piiri) is an administrativeOblast Law #32-oz and municipalLaw #81-oz district (raion), one of the seventeen in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It is located in t ...
in
Leningrad Oblast
Leningrad Oblast ( rus, Ленинградская область, Leningradskaya oblast’, lʲɪnʲɪnˈgratskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ, , ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It was established on 1 August 1927, although it was not until 194 ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
, and is close to
extinction
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
. According to Arvo Survo, in 2021 Votic had only 4 native speakers and 100 people who had some knowledge of the language.
History
Votic is one of numerous Finnic varieties known from Ingria. Votic shares some similarities with and has acquired loanwords from the adjacent
Ingrian language Ingrian can refer to:
*Of or pertaining to the region of Ingria
*The Ingrians, which can refer to:
** Ingrian Finns, descendants of Finnish immigrants to Ingria in the 17th century
** Izhorians, an indigenous people of Ingria
*The Ingrian languag ...
, but also has deep-reaching similarities with
Estonian to the west, which is considered its closest relative. Some linguists, including Tiit-Rein Viitso and Paul Alvre, have claimed that Votic evolved specifically from northeastern dialects of ancient Estonian. Votic regardless exhibits several features that indicate its distinction from Estonian (both innovations such as the palatalisation of velar consonants and a more developed system of cases, and retentions such as vowel harmony). According to Estonian linguist Paul Ariste, Votic was distinct from other Finnic languages, such as Finnish and Estonian, as early as the 6th century AD and has evolved independently ever since.
Isoglosses setting Votic apart from the other Finnic languages include:
* Loss of initial *h
* Palatalization of *k to before front vowels. This was a relatively late innovation, not found in Kreevin Votic or
Kukkuzi Votic.
* Lenition of the clusters *ps, *ks to
* Lenition of the cluster *st to geminate
Features shared with Estonian and the other southern Finnic languages include:
* Loss of word-final *n
* Shortening of vowels before *h
* Introduction of from backing of *e before a back vowel
* Development of *o to in certain words (particularly frequent in Votic)
* Loss of after a sonorant (clusters *lh *nh *rh)
![Votic language map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Votic_language_map.png)
In the 19th century Votic was already declining in favour of
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
(there were around 1,000 speakers of the language by the start of the
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
). After the Bolshevik Revolution, under Lenin, Votic had a brief revival period, with the language being taught at local schools and the first-ever grammar of Votic (Jõgõperä/
Krakolye dialect) being published. But after
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
came into power, the language began to decline.
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
had a devastating effect on the Votic language, with the number of speakers considerably decreased as a result of military offensives, deliberate destruction of villages by
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
troops, forced migration to the
Klooga concentration camp
Klooga concentration camp was a Nazi forced labor subcamp of the Vaivara concentration camp complex established in September 1943 in Harju County, during World War II, in German-occupied Estonia near the village of Klooga. The Vaivara camp comple ...
in Estonia and to Finland under the Nazi government, and the Stalinist policy of "dispersion" immediately after the war against the families whose members had been sent to Finland under the Nazi government. Since then, the Votes have largely concealed their Votic identity, pretending to be
Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
in the predominantly Russian environment. But they continued to use the language at home and when talking to family members and relatives. After the death of Stalin, the Votes were no longer mistreated and many of those who had been sent away returned to their villages. But the language had considerably declined and the number of bilingual speakers increased. Because Votic was stigmatised as a language of "uneducated villagers", Votic speakers avoided using it in public and Votic children were discouraged from using it even at home because, in the opinion of some local school teachers, it prevented them from learning to speak and write in Russian properly. Thus, in the second half of the 20th century there emerged a generation of young ethnic Votes whose first language was Russian and who understood Votic but were unable to speak it.
Education
There have been multiple attempts in Votic language education. In 1995–1998, Votic language courses were held in St. Petersburg, which were organized by
Mehmet Muslimov. These courses were attended by about 30 people. In 2003–2004, courses were held again, and these were also organized by Muslimov. Muslimov has also made Votic self-study material available on the internet. During 2010–2015, there were Votic courses established, which were attended by around 10 people. There are also Votic events where studying material for Votic is given to people. In 2015, a Votic study book called "Vad'd'a sõnakopittõja" was published by Heinike Heinsoo and Nikita Djačkov. There have also been a few lessons organized by T.F. Prokopenko for little children in a school in a Votic village.
Number of speakers
In 1989, there were 62 speakers left, the youngest born in 1938. In its 24 December 2005 issue, ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...
'' wrote that there are only approximately 20 speakers left.
In 2017, Votic was believed to have up to 8 native speakers.
and in 2010 less than 70 people had knowledge of the language.
Dialects
Three definite dialect groups of Votic are known:
*Western, the areas around the mouth of the
Luga River
The Luga () is a river in Novgorodsky and Batetsky Districts of Novgorod Oblast and Luzhsky, Volosovsky, Slantsevsky, and Kingiseppsky Districts of Leningrad Oblast of Russia. The river flows into the Luga Bay of the Gulf of Finland. It free ...
*Eastern, in villages around
Koporye
*
Krevinian, areas around the city of
Bauska
Bauska () is a town in Bauska Municipality, in the Zemgale region of southern Latvia.
Bauska is located from the Latvian capital Riga, 62 km (38.5 mi) from Jelgava and from the Lithuanian border on the busy European route E67. The to ...
,
Latvia
The Western dialect area can be further divided into the Central dialects (spoken around the village of
Kattila) and the Lower Luga dialects.
Of these, only the Lower Luga dialect is still spoken.
In 1848 it was estimated that of a total of 5,298 speakers of Votic, 3,453 (65%) spoke the western dialect, 1,695 (35%) spoke the eastern and 150 (3%) spoke the dialect of Kukkuzi. Kreevin had 12–15 speakers in 1810, the last records of Kreevin speakers are from 1846. The Kreevin dialect was spoken in an enclave in
Latvia by descendants of Votic
prisoners of war who were brought to the
Bauska
Bauska () is a town in Bauska Municipality, in the Zemgale region of southern Latvia.
Bauska is located from the Latvian capital Riga, 62 km (38.5 mi) from Jelgava and from the Lithuanian border on the busy European route E67. The to ...
area of Latvia in the 15th century by the
Teutonic order
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...
. The last known speaker of the eastern dialect died in 1960, in the village of ''Icäpäivä'' (
Itsipino).
A fourth dialect of Votic has often been claimed as well: the traditional language variety of the village of Kukkuzi. It shows a mix of features of Votic and neighboring
Ingrian, and some linguists, e.g. Arvo Laanest have claimed that it is actually rather a dialect of Ingrian. The vocabulary and phonology of the dialect are largely Ingrian-based, but it shares some grammatical features with the main Votic dialects, probably representing a former Votic
substratum.
In particular, all phonological features that Votic shares specifically with Estonian (e.g. the presence of the vowel ''õ'') are absent from the dialect.
The Kukkuzi dialect has been declared to be dead since the 1970s,
although three speakers have still been located in 2006.
Orthography
In the 1920s, the Votic linguist
Dmitri Tsvetkov wrote a Votic grammar using a modified
Cyrillic alphabet. The current Votic alphabet was created by Mehmet Muslimov in 2004:
A peculiarity of Muslimov's orthography is using ''c'' for (this phoneme comes mostly from palatalization of historical , compare Votic ''ceeli'' 'language', ''ciri'' 'book', ''cülä'' 'village' with Finnish ''kieli, kirja, kylä''). Some publications use ''tš'' or ''č'' instead.
One may find different orthographies for Votic in descriptive work. Some use a modified Cyrillic alphabet, and others a
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
one. The transcriptions based on Latin have many similarities with those used in closely related Finnic languages, such as the use of ''č'' for . At least a couple of ways exist for indicating long vowels in Votic; placing a
macron over the vowel (such as ''ā'') as in
Latvian, or as in written Estonian and Finnish, doubling the vowel (''aa'').
Geminate
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
consonants are generally represented with two characters. The representation of central vowels varies. In some cases the practice is to use ''e̮'' according to the standards of
Uralic transcription, while in other cases the letter ''õ'' is used, as in Estonian.
Phonetics and phonology
Vowels
Votic has 10 vowel qualities, all of which can be long or short; represented in the following chart. The vowels /ɨ/ and /ɨː/ are found only in loanwords. The Votic ⟨õ⟩ /ɤ/ , however, is impressionistically a bit higher than the
Estonian ⟨õ⟩, with the rest of the vowel inventory generally corresponding to the ones found in Estonian.
In some central dialects, the long mid vowels have been diphthongized to , as in Finnish. Thus, ''tee'' 'road' is pronounced as ''tie''. Votic also has a large inventory of diphthongs.
![Votic vowel harmony Venn diagram](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Votic_vowel_harmony_Venn_diagram.svg)
Votic has a system of
vowel harmony
In phonology, vowel harmony is an assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, mea ...
, rather similar to Finnish in its overall behavior: the vowels are divided in three groups, ''front-harmonic'', ''back-harmonic'' and ''neutral''. Words may generally not contain both front-harmonic and back-harmonic vowels; but both groups can combine with neutral vowels. The front-harmonic vowels are ''ä e ö ü''; the corresponding back-harmonic vowels are ''a õ o u''. Unlike Finnish, Votic only has a single neutral vowel, ''i''.
However, there are some exceptions with the behavior of ''o ö''. Some suffixes including the vowel ''o'' do not harmonize (the occurrence of ''ö'' in non-initial syllables is generally a result of Finnish or
Ingrian loan words), and similarly onomatopoetic words and loanwords are not necessarily subject to rules of vowel harmony.
Consonants
Notes:
* occurs only in eastern Votic, as a weak-grade counterpart to .
* Palatalised consonants are rare and normally allophonic, occurring automatically before or before a consonant that in turn is followed by . Phonemic palatalised consonants occur mostly as the result of a former following , usually as geminates. In other environments they are almost entirely found in loanwords, primarily from Russian. In some words in certain dialects, a palatalised consonant may become phonemic by the loss of the following vowel, such as ''esimein'' > ''eśmein''.
* is affricated to in Kukkuzi Votic.
* only occurs in complementary distribution with .
* mainly as a result of loanwords from Russian, Ingrian, and Finnish dialects, or as an allophone of .
Nearly all Votic consonants may occur as geminates. Also, Votic also has a system of consonant gradation, which is discussed in further detail in the
consonant gradation
Consonant gradation is a type of consonant mutation (mostly lenition but also assimilation) found in some Uralic languages, more specifically in the Finnic, Samic and Samoyedic branches. It originally arose as an allophonic alternation betw ...
article, although a large amount of alternations involve voicing alternations. Two important differences in Votic phonetics as compared to Estonian and Finnish is that the sounds and are actually fully fricatives, unlike Estonian and Finnish, in which they are approximants. Also, one possible
allophone
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...
of is , ''ühsi'' is thus pronounced as IPA: .
The lateral has a
velarized
Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant.
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, velarization is transcribed by one of four d ...
allophone when occurring adjacent to
back vowels.
Voicing is not contrastive word-finally. Instead a type of
sandhi
Sandhi ( sa, सन्धि ' , "joining") is a cover term for a wide variety of sound changes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries. Examples include fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of one sound depending on near ...
occurs: voiceless are realized before words beginning with a voiceless consonant, voiced before voiced consonants (or vowels). Before a pause, the realization is voiceless lenis, ; the stops are here similar to the Estonian ''b d g''. Thus:
* pre-pausal: "thief"
* before a voiceless consonant: "a thief comes"
* before a voiced consonant: "a thief takes"
Grammar
Votic is an
agglutinating language much like the other Finnic languages. In terms of inflection on nouns, Votic has two numbers (singular, plural), and 16 cases:
nominative,
genitive,
accusative
The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb.
In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘th ...
(distinct for pronouns),
partitive In linguistics, the partitive is a word, phrase, or case that indicates partialness. Nominal partitives are syntactic constructions, such as "some of the children", and may be classified semantically as either set partitives or entity partitives ba ...
,
illative
In grammar, the illative case (; abbreviated ; from la, illatus "brought in") is a grammatical case used in the Finnish, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian and Hungarian languages. It is one of the locative cases, and has the basic meaning of "int ...
,
inessive,
elative,
allative
In grammar, the allative case (; abbreviated ; from Latin ''allāt-'', ''afferre'' "to bring to") is a type of locative grammatical case. The term allative is generally used for the lative case in the majority of languages that do not make finer ...
,
adessive
In grammar, an adessive case (abbreviated ; from Latin '' adesse'' "to be present (at)": ''ad'' "at" + ''esse'' "to be") is a grammatical case generally denoting location at, upon, or adjacent to the referent of the noun; the term is most frequent ...
,
ablative
In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. ...
,
translative,
essive
In grammar, the essive case, or similaris case, (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case.O'Grady, William, John Archibald, Mark Aronoff, and Janie Rees-Miller. "Morphology: The Analysis of Word Structure." Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. 6th ...
,
exessive,
abessive
In linguistics, abessive (abbreviated or ), caritive and privative (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case expressing the lack or absence of the marked noun. In English, the corresponding function is expressed by the preposition '' without'' or ...
,
comitative
In grammar, the comitative case (; abbreviated ) is a grammatical case that denotes accompaniment. In English, the preposition "with", in the sense of "in company with" or "together with", plays a substantially similar role (other uses of "with", l ...
,
terminative.
Unlike
Livonian, which has been influenced to a great extent by
Latvian, Votic retained many of its Finnic characteristics. Although there are many loanwords from Russian, its phonological and grammatical influence on Votic is less marked than the Latvian influence on Livonian.
In terms of verbs, Votic has six tenses and aspects, two of which are basic:
present,
imperfect
The imperfect ( abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was walking" or "used to ...
; and the rest of which are compound tenses: present perfect, past perfect, future and future perfect. Votic has three moods (
conditional,
imperative,
potential
Potential generally refers to a currently unrealized ability. The term is used in a wide variety of fields, from physics to the social sciences to indicate things that are in a state where they are able to change in ways ranging from the simple r ...
), and two 'voices' (
active
Active may refer to:
Music
* ''Active'' (album), a 1992 album by Casiopea
* Active Records, a record label
Ships
* ''Active'' (ship), several commercial ships by that name
* HMS ''Active'', the name of various ships of the British Royal ...
and
passive
Passive may refer to:
* Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive
* Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works
* Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of o ...
). Caution however should be used with the term 'passive', with Finnic languages though as a result of the fact that it is more active and 'impersonal' (it has an oblique 3rd person marker, and so is not really 'passive').
Cases
Below is the word "poikõ" (boy), inflected in case and number.
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Votianat ''Indigenous Minority Languages of Russia''
The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire*
Classification of Votian dialects at wikiversity
Чернявский В. М. Vaďďa ceeli. Izeõpõttaja / Водский язык. Самоучитель.(''Note: The actual link is permanently dead'')
*
Wikipedia language test in VoticВодские сказки (stories in Votic)Workbook for Vad'd'a sõnakõpittõja
{{DEFAULTSORT:Votic Language
Votians
Finnic languages
Ingria
Languages of Russia
Endangered Uralic languages